


Friend of a Friend

by carloabay



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: F/F, Flustered China Sorrows, Frenemies, Hate Triangle (is that a thing??)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25151941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carloabay/pseuds/carloabay
Summary: Valkyrie needs to borrow a book, and Tanith is not up to small talk with China Sorrows.
Relationships: Tanith Low/China Sorrows, Valkyrie Cain & Tanith Low
Kudos: 8





	Friend of a Friend

The door opened silently and China narrowed her eyes to glance through the bookshelves at her visitors. Anthony Veiling was late in returning a very old and expensive book, and she was starting to regret letting him get his bony hands on it in the first place. But it wasn't Anthony Veiling. It was Valkyrie, and China's bad mood seemed to lift a little, until hot on her heels came Tanith Low, still fairly busting out of her ridiculous leather leotard. They made their way through the stacks towards China, and she tried to arrange her face into stern neutrality, and almost didn't manage it. Valkyrie arrived at the desk with a friendly smile, and China tilted her head gently. Tanith was studiously avoiding eye contact.

"Hi, China. It's good to see you," Valkyrie said brightly. China ignored the terrible notion of greetings and rested her forearms delicately on the desk.

"What can I do for you?" she asked. Tanith stared around at the ceiling. Valkyrie, bless her unobservant soul, hadn't noticed the glances China was sending Tanith's way.

"Well, we've got an unusual case. Skulduggery sent me to find pretty much anything you have on liches." China raised one perfect eyebrow.

"Liches? Specifically."

"Yeah. Not, like, the Undead Encyclopedia, or something. Specifically liches," Valkyrie said, looking hopeful. China waved her assistant over and he came quickly, heels sinking into the carpet, knees bent like some sort of grasshopper.

"Liches. I'd say...stack thirty. Thirty-one, perhaps." Her assistant nodded and jerked his head hard to one side, an action to get Valkyrie to follow him. She did, and Tanith put her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. An uncomfortable silence drifted down, and China turned back to the book she'd been checking for forgery. "Tea?" she asked, after a second, and Tanith gave an odd little movement, like she'd been jump-scared.

"Uh...no thanks." There was a very, very small mistake on page three hundred and seven, but then China realised she'd already been over it and it hadn't been a mistake. It had been _the_ mistake. The mistake that made this book an original. She still didn't trust it, and she didn't have time to be reading paragraphs over and over again. 

She bent over her book. Tanith's wave of hair shone like spun gold in the library lighting, and China scowled minutely at the tiny printed words on the page. Tanith cleared her throat, and China scowled even more. 

"Not distracting you, am I?" Tanith asked, sounding like she couldn't care less. China looked up and offered her one of her famous knee-buckling smiles, if only for the pleasure of seeing Tanith swoon, but the other woman didn't move an inch.

"No," China said gracefully, spitefully. She returned to her book. A mistake! What page? Three hundred and seven... No, not a mistake. _The_ mistake, again. China closed her eyes and forced herself to focus. Hard to do when Tanith was still hanging around the desk like a lost, leather-clad ghost. 

"Hey, China. Can I check this out?" Valkyrie asked, walking back to the desk. China looked up so fast her necklace clinked. Valkyrie was holding a very dusty paperback with a disturbing depiction of a liche on the front, and China smiled.

"Of course. There's a fee for late returns, and the death penalty for desecration, dear." Valkyrie stared at her with a wide, dark pair of eyes, and China smiled wider. "I was joking." Valkyrie relaxed.

"Not known for your jokes, Sorrows?" Tanith said, almost challenging, and Valkyrie checked the book out on China's clipboard. China fixed Tanith with a stare that Valkyrie couldn't see, but Tanith only responded with the smallest smile.

It was only after they were gone, ushered from the library by the assistant, that China pulled herself together. What kind of woman could distract China Sorrows from books?

**Author's Note:**

> By the way, I can take requests, so if you want me to write anything, say in the comments and I'll see what I can rustle up :)


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